My grandmother grew up in Watauga County of North Carolina, not far from Boone. They were too poor to own vehicles, so traveling was almost always done on foot. One day a small baby passed away that had belonged to one of my great-grandmother’s friends. So on the day of the funeral, my great-grandmother left her kids at home to do chores and walked six miles to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Valle Crucis. When she arrived, she figured that she must have been late because from outside she could hear the congregation singing “Amazing Grace.” When she opened the door, however, no one was inside. When she returned home, she told the neighbors, who told her that the funeral was not to be held until the next day. Over the course of her life, she told this story and met several other people who claimed to have heard “Amazing Grace” being sung inside the church as well. She began calling it the ‘Ghost Church,’ and throughout my life, I have never heard anyone from my family or in Valle Crucis refer to it as St. John’s Episcopal. It has been branded as the Ghost Church, and we visit it whenever we get a chance (and secretly hoping we’ll hear some music).
Here’s a photo:
Thanks!
Jacob Lusk B.A. Biology
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